Behiç Erkin

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Behiç Bey as an Ottoman military

Behiç Erkin (* 1876 in Istanbul ; † 1961 ) was a Turkish military man, the first general director of the State Railway Company of Turkey (TCDD), minister and diplomat.

biography

Erkin was born in Istanbul. His father was the officer of the Ottoman Empire Ömer Fevzi Pasha. Behiç received his schooling through home schooling . After the completion of the military academy, he was in 1903 as an officer for the 3rd Army in Thessaloniki called, where from 1907 also Mustafa Kemal worked under Erkin command. In 1917 he was sent to Azerbaijan to build a regular army there. Because of his services during the First World War , he was awarded the Iron Cross , the Bavarian Military Merit Cross and the Order of the Red Eagle with Sword.

During the Turkish War of Liberation , he supported Mustafa Kemal in Istanbul. Until 1920 he supplied Kemal with weapons stolen by the British occupation forces. In 1920 Behiç went to Anatolia and took over the Turkish railroad in 1921, so that he could take care of the transport and supply of the resistance troops. His place of work was in Eskişehir , an important traffic junction. After the war of liberation he was awarded the Turkish Liberation Order in 1926. From 1934 all Turkish citizens had to have a family name, Behiç got his family name from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk . "Erkin" means independent, independent. Erkin was the general director of the Turkish railway until 1926. Between January 1926 and August 1928 he was Minister for Public Works. In 1927 he was also a co-founder of the Turkish secret service ( Milli Emniyet Hizmeti , since 1965 Millî İstihbarat Teşkilâtı ).

After 1928 he worked as a diplomat in various cities. In 1939 he was appointed to the Turkish Embassy in Paris . Erkin's role there as the savior of the Jews has not yet been explored. The often mentioned figure that he and other diplomats saved 20,000 Turkish Jews from extermination comes from the apologetic text "Büyükelçi" (Eng. The Ambassador), which was published in 2007 by his grandson, Emir Kıvırcık. It is true that on November 1, 2005, all former Turkish diplomats from the countries occupied by the Nazis who, like Behiç Erkin, rescued or are said to have rescued Sephardic Jews from being transported to the concentration camps , were posthumously recognized by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF) as part of a memorial event honored in New York . Nevertheless, as of 2009, the foundation has not been able to present reliable results with regard to the activities of Turkish diplomats in occupied France . Selahattin Ülkümen also remains the only Turkish Righteous Among the Nations recognized by Yad Vashem .

In 1958, Erkin donated his diaries to the Turk Tarih Kurumu , on condition that they were published one year after his death. However, the diaries have not yet appeared. His grandson, Emir Kıvırcık , who copied the diaries, wrote the only biography about Erkin. Erkin died in 1961 and was buried in Eskişehir according to his wishes.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://ansiklopedi.turkcebilgi.com/Behi%C3%A7_Erkin
  2. ↑ http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/about/reports/report-activities-2005/
  3. ↑ cf. the call at the end of http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/about/newsletter/may-2009/

See also

Web links

Commons : Behiç Erkin  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Erkin, Behiç
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Turkish soldier, minister and diplomat, savior of the Jews
DATE OF BIRTH 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Istanbul
DATE OF DEATH 1961